Member Reviews

This compilation of logical posers is tied in with Sherlock Holmes, just like the other in the series I've seen, that also told us about codes along the way. This, however, is by far the inferior volume. I have to consider this the finished product (especially as two completely different e-arcs showed me how the code one evolved), but I immediately found puzzles whose very instruction flawed me; things to think about I didn't engage with or care for; and no growth in the difficulty level, beyond the first one being bloody obvious and the rest near-impossible. Now I have found several other collections of lateral-thinking puzzles before now, and haven't taken to them, either. So it's perhaps no surprise this rankled with me. But it has no educational value beyond the actual brain use, and the Holmes side of things is tacked on. I wouldn't have been so disappointed if I didn't think the code puzzle book such a success. One and a half stars – these will only appeal to real devotees of this kind of puzzle.

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***Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.***

⭐⭐⭐
3 stars

A decent puzzle book. I would have enjoyed more math-based puzzles, but that’s just my preference.

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This is a great idea for a book. There seem to be no instructions though. You just have to dive in and use the knowledge you already have. Would not recommend.

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What a cool puzzle book! This had so many fun and complex Sherlock Holmes themed-puzzles that kept my entire family busy and occupied during game nights. It had the added-advantage of keeping my kids on their toes to apply their math and logic skills! The puzzles ranged in difficulty level, and it was fun working with the entire family to figure out the clues and games to break the code!

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A clever book with a misleading title.

This book is much more of a Code-breaking primer than a math and logic game book. Although code-breaking takes math and logic, the entire book is codes and not other types of math puzzles. All of the codes have ties to Sherlock Holmes stories, so it would appeal to readers of those books as well!

Each section takes you through a brief history of a particular code, and then gives you several of those type of codes to break on your own. There is a single code to break on each page, which makes for clear, easy reading and writing, if you have the physical book, which would be the easiest to use.

It would appeal to older children (maybe age 10 at the earliest, unless they are particularly bright and interested in codes) and up.

I received an ARC as a reviewer for NetGalley.

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This is great. My son loved the puzzles, and I did too — lots of fun thinking challenges. I will recommend it to others for sure.

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Little book full of interesting cipher puzzles. It was fun reading about the different ciphers and trying to find the solutions to the puzzles. Some were easy, some were tricky and took time to solve. Perfect!

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A huge assortment of challenging math based puzzles. These would be really fun to do as a brain break at school. Perfect for grades 6 and up but maybe younger grades could work on them together in groups.

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

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Are you looking for a brain break from the computer? Do you need a challenge from your mundane life in isolation? Then look no further than this book!

There are over 100 puzzles with visuals to challenge your thinking on various riddles and scenarios.

As a 5th grade teacher, I would say that most of these are too difficult, but I would certainly use it to challenge students at the high school level and perhaps even at the middle school level.

Thanks to Pierre Berloquin, Quarto Publishing Group, and NetGalley for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

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Firstly I have to admit the cover isn’t appealing to me, it reminds me too much of a textbook! But once inside this book is filled with mental challenges to get your brain working. Thankfully the solutions are at the back to confirm your theory (or if you give up)!

I hope to get to work out a few more soon certainly a good family game opportunity too

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I very much wanted to see this book. Yesterday I reviewed the Code Breakers book in this series and thought it was excellent. However, when I try to download this one, the code book downloads again in its place. I preemptively rate this one four stars as I am sure that I would have liked it.
I hope you understand and agree with my not posting this review externally. Please let me know if the issue is corrected.

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This appears to be the wrong file? I requested both this book and the Sherlock Holmes Codebreakers and both PDFs are identical for me. It's a shame because I liked the sound of this one much more from the puzzles listed but instead I got the same ARC twice.

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As a child I adored Sherlock Holmes and also enjoyed all sorts of brain-challenging mental puzzles. This cool Series combines both of those delights, encouraging readers to assist Dr. Watson while also following clues discovered by Holmes, the Great Detective.

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I was kind of excited to get this as an ARC through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. I had envisioned tackling one or two of the puzzles each day when I requested this book. However, I found them pretty simplistic for me, and after going through one or two of each of the different types of puzzles, I grew bored with the rest. I might have found it a little more interesting if the puzzles actually revealed something intriguing, or built a story - sadly, that is not the case, and the answers to the puzzles are pretty much random phrases.

In addition, I know I received an ARC, but this book is desperately in need of some editing - I am not sure if it is a translation issue, or something else, but the blurbs on the pages are almost unreadable at times. For instance, "secrete" is a VERY different word from "secret," and I think that this was a misspelling/typo. One of the hints is written as "Try possible interpretations of the one letter wor" dropping the "d" in word. Another page has "ca you read the description?" missing the "n" in "can." I just found it distracting, and found myself being more interested in finding the typos than solving the puzzles.

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Whoa. These are cool. I can think of middle schoolers at my library that would devour these, but adults would enjoy this too. Probably wouldn't purchase for the library collection per se, but could definitely use as a professional resource when creating escape rooms. If I tried to circulate this one, it would just come back with tons of writing. Kind of wish it had some solving spaces or larger margin space for you to do calculations. Not sure what the quality of the publication will be, just like a Dell puzzlebook or something sturdy?

Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an Advanced Reader Copy

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